Trying to do my ball joints along with my brakes (calipers and all), hubs, and axle u-joints.

I've been using a rented ball joint press from Autozone. Beefy thing. My lower left ball joint will not budge. Will NOT. The press has only succeeded in slightly buggering up the stem. That ball joint has not moved ONE BIT. I've been at it all day.

Any suggestions?


A buggered ball joint. This ain't good!

 

Couple suggestions . Make sure you have the ball joint press on correctly where it can press it out without making contact with anything on the press . Second get it on there and tight then take a BFH and whack the bottom of the press and the sides of the knuckle next to the ball joint a lot of time it will help get things going . Also heating the knuckle ( not the ball joint ) will help as well if needed . Don't go too crazy with the hammer .

 

It will budge. Just gotta be a man. Mine took me a whole day for one side because one wouldn't budge. It helps to use a torch to heat it up

 

No room for a hammer. I think this one is beyond hope, so I'll try the torch next....

 

lift it higher !

 

i remember using a pickle fork on jobs like that. beat it in with 2 lb hammer till it stuck. then blocked it up and lowered the car to put weight on it. then whacked it with same hammer. sumpthin had to giv and did!
had to really scrub that fork b4 putting it back in kitchen

 

keeping pressure on it and slowly building it up and letting it sit dont expect it to pop right away give it a minute and also i remember using a couple of thick washers to level the press out more straight i dont remember for which the top or bottom joint.

marc

 

Did other side come out ?

 

I bought harbor freights ball joint remover and it was a pain to get out the drivers side, bent the clamp too. then bought their cup thingys made for jeeps and such and the passenger side was a piece of cake.

 

May be a dumb question, but youre going the right way with the press right?

 

Not dumb.. just direct . >..lol...Thats why I asked about other side.

 

... Wrong post

 

DING! DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!

I just logged on to say that I'm stupid, and saw this post!


I've been going the wrong way. I"ll report back after I try it the right way!

 

I did that too my first time doing my ball joints. There was so much dirt and rust, I got confused which way to go. Luckily I didn't damage the axle C.

 

I did the same thing too the first time I did it. Don't feel too bad.